Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1887-04-20
CONFEDERATE DEAD.
TELIR EyADBoAnD, AT OAK rooD
FAST RorrEHINe,
Proposition 10 Take Them Down and
Level the Ground int
Grass Plot.

On tho 9Th of April Mr.. Rowland
Hill, chairman Of the City Council
Committee ON Cemeteries, wrote (un-
der instructions from the committee) to
Mrs. A. Y. Stokes, president of the
Cakwood Memorial Association, asking
its permission to remove all the wooden
boards marking the graves OF the Con-
fedeIate dead.
The letter further said: "Last year
The bushes were cut down, the trees
trimmed, and the walkways cleaned
but the headboards badly decayed,
and have repeatedly fallen down. II is
proposed 70 have the ground ploughed
and fertilized, aud seeded to grass.
When in grass it can be moved occa-
sionally, and will present a tidy APP
pt aTance.
THE LADIES' REPLY.
Writing under date of the 18th Mrs.
c. Poythress, secretary OF the associa-
ton, said that at a meeting Of the asso-
citation held on the 18th the attendance
was so small that no action could be
taken, and the few members present
were unwilling to assume the whole re-
sponsibility of allowing all the marks to
be swept away, as every year there are
applications for information respecting
graves. Mrs. Poythress added that as
soon as convenient a meeting will be
called.
THE COMMITTEES.
The Council committee has not met
since the letter was received, and
therefore no action has been taken on
il, and they will take no steps toward
the consummation OF their intentions
until the association is heard from.
oARwOOD.
Oakwood is in the eastern suburbs Of
the city. and is not very far from Chin
borazo Hill, on which the Confederate
Government had large hospitals. Here
thousands and thousands of soldiers,
wounded in battle or sickened by ar
duous services in the trenches, breathed
their last and found humble graves in
the soldiers section of the neighboring
cemetery-Oakwood.
Soon after the war the Ladies' Oak
wood Memorial Association was formed.
They marked each grave, and IN the
midst of the great field of dead erected
handsome monument to the 1900
soldiers from the States from Maryland
TO Texas there inferred. These head
boards are fastening to decay, and the
ladies' have not the means to put them
and the mounds in proper order.
What is to be done?
The proposition of the Council COM
mittee is shocking at the first sound ;
but it must come to that in the end un-
less permanent provision is made by
the State or the city, or the two to-
gether, to keep these hallowed graves
in order.
Much the same condition of affairs
exists at Hollywood, and but recently
the president of the association, Mrs.
Lewis Webb, issued an appeal to
all who love the memory of the
Confederate dead to come to their aid
and provide money to enable them to
renew the headboards. That it IS not
a useless thing so to do is shown by the
fact that within a month past one man
in Arkansas and another in Mississippi
wrote here to know if certain graves
could be identified. The answers were
that they could be, and it is expected
that loving relatives will now have
suitable monuments erected over them.
Yes; the time has come for some
positive action to be taken about the
soldiers graves.
There are 10000 at Hollywood.
There are 1900 at Oakwood.
Funds must be provided or else they
cannot be kept up.